Letter from Nedim C. Buyukmihci, VMDto Yellville Mayor

28 July 2017

Shawn Lane, Mayor
PO Box 647
Yellville, Arkansas 72687

Mayor Lane:

As a veterinarian and expert in animal welfare issues, I am writing
concerning the dropping of turkeys from airplanes, which apparently is done
as an event in Yellville. This practice is inherently inhumane and should
be stopped immediately.

Domestic turkeys no longer have the capacity to fly like their wild
counterparts. Furthermore, being loaded into an airplane and then dropped
from many hundreds of feet in itself would cause extreme fear and distress
for these individuals even if they could fly. The result is as predicable
as it is morally unconscionable: death or severe injuries and further
suffering. No rational, intelligent and selfless person could ever support
doing such a thing to these animals. I hope you will agree and put a stop
to this atrocity.

Nedim C. Buyukmihci, V.M.D.
Emeritus Professor of Veterinary Medicine
School of Veterinary Medicine
University of California-Davis